Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The present invention relates generally to communication networks and, more particularly, to network connection routing.
It is well known in the art that toll calls are defined based upon the locations of the originating party and the destination party and the associated routing. Conventional networks typically offer so-called foreign exchange (FX) service to support remote local calling capabilities on a point-to-point basis, i.e., from a particular originating location to a particular destination area. Typically, a customer purchases FX service from a carrier on a per-circuit basis for access via dedicated circuit connections. For example, a customer can purchase an FX line for Matawan, N.J., and connect it to the private branch exchange (PBX) at the customer""s Denver, Colo. location via a dedicated circuit from Denver to Matawan. With appropriate PBX programming, the customer can use this circuit to call from one originating location (Denver) to one destination area (Matawan N.J. area) as a local call.
However, this approach requires dedicated FX circuits between every combination of originating and terminating locations. Thus, increasing numbers of originating and terminating locations rapidly increase the number of dedicated circuits. For example, a customer with 50 originating locations desiring to remotely originate local calls to 100 different areas would require 5000 dedicated connections. This results in significant expense to the customer due to the costs of purchasing the dedicated circuits and purchasing corresponding PBX capacity for the dedicated circuits.
In addition, conventional networks require the customer to purchase a specific number of circuits in each dedicated connection. The number of simultaneous calls that can be supported between an originating location and a terminating area is limited to the number of circuits that are purchased. This arrangement forces trade-offs between the costs of purchasing additional circuits and the ability to support a desired level of peak traffic.
Further, such networks require the customer to maintain routing translations at each originating location that identify which dialed numbers are local calls from each FX line for routing eligible calls to the appropriate FX circuit. This routing data can be quite complex and can require frequent updates as Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs), e.g, area codes, are split and new NPAs are put in service.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a network that eliminates the need for maintaining routing translations, enables a customer to use an existing connection from each originating location, and eliminates a trade-off between purchasing additional circuits and supporting peak traffic levels.
The present invention provides a network having an interconnection between Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and a Foreign Exchange (FX) service. With this arrangement, calls placed by a network customer at various customer locations can be provided to local exchange carriers as local calls that would traditionally be provided as toll calls. While the invention is primarily shown and described in conjunction with telephone networks, it is understood that the invention is generally applicable to networks in which it is desirable to reduce connection costs.
In one aspect of the invention, a network includes a plurality of switches/routers for routing connections from a plurality of customer locations to a plurality of destination areas. A predetermined set of FX lines, which can correspond to a set of rate centers, is assigned to each participating VPN customer of the network. Routing logic for each VPN customer is established to identify calls that can be re-originated as local calls on a particular FX line. Re-origination refers to the operation in which calls, e.g., traditional toll calls, are delivered from the network to a local exchange carrier as a local call. The network provides a virtual connection from the VPN customer to the corresponding set of FX lines.